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Background on Olive Senior

The story "Summer Lightning" illuminates the experience of a young boy who has a suspicious encounter with an older man who seemingly preys on little boys. The story of this riveting encounter is told by one of the Caribbean’s most decorated writers -Olive Senior. Oliver Marjorie Senior born on the 23rd of December 1941 in the parish of Trelawny, Jamaica. Olive was the seventh of ten children that grew up in the Cockpit Mountains and spent her early childhood years switching between the adjoining western parishes of Westmoreland, Hanover and St James. She attended the Montego Bay High school and then the Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada where she studied journalism. Oliver Senior produced several works of literature, poetry collections, novels and short stories. The famous short story "Summer Lightning" was published in 1986. Miss Senior received many awards, she collected the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Summer Lightning in 1987, a year after publication. Her work, reflected on the unique culture and value system of a colonial society with creole expressions, minimizing the role of British values.

Introduction

The language utilized to tell the story of Summer Lightning is British English, the experiences and characters are of a creole nature. The story details how a young boy moves in to live with his aunt and uncle, and comes into contact with an old man who also visits and stays with the family for short periods in the garden room of the house. The boy is fascinated by the old man’s quiet, somber demeanor, but the two ends up developing a strange friendship. This threatens the boy’s friendship with another character, Bro. Justice – the only named character in the story. Bro. Justice, a devout Rastafarian, became aware of the boy’s evolving friendship with the old man, and is extremely skeptical and worried because of a past experience between him and the old man. That experience, compounded by an awareness of the vulnerability of the boy, leads Bro. Justice to make a personal commitment to protect the boy from any harm lurking in the shadows. If harm were to greet the boy though, it would be in an isolated room where the old man stayed and where he – the boy – found solace – especially during downpours which are generally accompanied by lightning. This body of work will attempt to critically review the most robust themes in this 10-page story, which includes power, religion, relationships and survival. Those themes will be used to frame a discussion around key societal issues such as patriarchy, manhood, and womanhood. The role of language and its utility in shaping opinions and beliefs will also be briefly assessed.

 The Themes Of the Summer Lightning and its societal issues 

Religion

Rastafarianism was the major religion used by Senior which helped to in the shaping of opinions and beliefs and it also shows language roles and variation. Rastafarianism is considered a social movement that in Jamaica in the 1930s, it is a combination of Christianity, Protestant, mysticism and pan- African political consciousness. The members from the movement reflect mostly from the Old testament in the bible considering that they called God 'Jah' and believe that they are being tested by him through slavery and the existence of economic injustice and racial. The Rastafarian in the story was Bro. Justice, he spoke about Jah and the lightning to the boy so that he could help shape him based on his beliefs. Senior also used Bro Justice and his religion when he said 'for one man to look another man like that was sinful' this shows that this is not favoured based on the beliefs from the old testament of the bible. The usage of the word 'Sodom' by him also shows that he referred to Sodom and Gomorrah which were two cities mentioned in the Book of Genesis that spoke about homosexual men. Rastas uphold patriarchal values and sexism. Patriarchy is the power of men over women and the subjection and victimization of women (Lindsey, 2016) because of Bro. Justice's beliefs he no longer addressed and respected the aunt. He perhaps had discovered, through biblical words that a man’s place in the world was not to be a subordinate to women. The British language was used mostly throughout the story but there was a little Jamaican Creole on Rastafarianism. This was seen when Bro. Justice said "Lightning is Jah triple vision, is like Xray dat" or "when Jah to search I out, Jah send the lightning see right through I". Rastafarian eradicated the pronouns 'me' and used 'I' which shows that the deconstruction of English language. They believe that is an imposed colonial language hence why they use Iyaric.

Power

Within any form of human organization, there exists variations in the level of control individuals have over themselves, others, and the environment. Shafritz, et al. (2015) describe this ability to influence or exercise control as power. Summer Lightning provides several instances where power was leveraged by characters to advance or protect their interest(s). The old man’s power over both the boy and Bro. Justice was perhaps the most interesting case. On one hand the old man had very little physical control over himself, as evidenced by the fact that "he did not appear to see too well… [And] his mouth trembled”. The old man had vision challenges but at the same time, he exercised enormous mental control over Bro. Justice who was still angered by the old man’s touching of his face some years back; and the little boy who, despite some amount of reluctance and skepticism, didn’t mind being in a room alone with him. A power-struggle also existed between Bro. Justice and the aunt, for she felt that he relinquished his duty to respect her after his embracing of a religious lifestyle. This particular incident ushers in consideration of the subtle role of patriarchy and the extent to which it was either challenged or supported. Bro. Justice’s subscription to Rastafarian values imposed on him a form a ‘liberation’ which no longer forced him to see himself as a subject of authority – in this case, the authority being the aunt. Power was also reflected in the boy’s ability to control his thoughts and imagination which brought him great peace.

Relationship

Regular social encounter, between characters, over a period of time, allows for a better understanding of contexts and interpretation of situations. The interpersonal relationship between characters in Summer Lightning were dynamic. The boy and the old man shared a relationship which, when studied, warranted consideration of position and authority. The old man was cognizant of the fact that the boy found him to be an intriguing character, and he (the old man) exploited the innocence of the boy to forge what was an awkward relationship. Position and authority also describe the relationship between the boy and Bro. Justice but in striking contrast whereas the old man seemingly sought to take advantage of the vulnerability of the boy, Bro. Justice sought to protect him from potential dangers. It is important to note however, that Bro. Justice was restricted in his attempt because his relationship with the boy went dormant after the old man’s arrival. Meanwhile, the relationship between the old man and Bro. Justice was seemingly toxic. That Bro. Justice immediately became furious at the thought of the old man taking advantage of the boy reveals to us that the old man was held in disdain for years. The fact that Bro. Justice also deemed it fitting to have his machete at hand in the event that he needed to protect the boy against the old man, is very telling. It indicates that Bro. Justice, was willing to violate his religious principles to administer ‘justice’ in the event of a violation. Judging from his posture, it can also be concluded that Bro. Justice’s actions exemplified manhood, particularly in a Caribbean context. How? Schrock and Schwalbe (2009) tell us that manhood is arrived at after satisfying a set of requirements through which the identity of a man is established. In this particular case, it is within the Caribbean culture to expect a man to respond violently if he believes his masculinity is threatened. Loosely, masculinity refers to general behaviors and social roles which society believes ought to correspond with being a man. Senior tells us in Summer Lightning that Bro. Justice kept watch over the little boy using a machete, because there was a possibility that the old man could strip the boy of his innocence.

Survival

Important in the assessment of a character is examining how they navigate difficult circumstances since it reveals underlying traits. Survival featured prominently as a theme in Summer Lightning on at least two occasions. Bro. Justice was an interesting character to study, particularly because of his approach to life as someone who had a spiritual rebirth. In this phase of his life, what was important to him was reliance on spirituality and a sudden need to physically isolate from the world. This behaviour offers us insight into one of the possibilities of a spiritual rebirth, and how new converts or deeply religious persons survive. It reveals to us how a deep sense of spirituality could readjust how we socialize and exist within a certain space. The following excerpt from the story justifies that position: “…in going away, he (Bro. Justice) had lost that respect for them [the aunt and uncle]… Bro. Justice refused to address her at all…”. Additionally, it should be appreciated that the story ended with the boy not having comfortably adjusted to his new life, with his new family. It could be deduced that he had a very reserved attitude towards his new guardians. Part of the story tells us that “he (the boy) felt displaced, as if he had been plucked from one world which was small and snug and mistakenly placed into another…”. What sporadically compounded this issue were episodes of thunderstorms which forced him to “wait out the storm” in the isolated room. With no one to seek comfort in, his coping mechanism was to rely on the power of his mind to give life and meaning to objects in the room, and that allowed him to survive the storm. It was of little concern to him that he was braving two battles alone. In a Caribbean context, men are socially conditioned to believe that they must not be fearful and learn to rely on self. It is evident that one of these conditions, or prerequisite of manhood, was not satisfied, since the boy was fearful of the thunderstorm. Not limited to fear of the thunderstorm, the end of the story paints a picture of a terrified little boy who would inevitably be overcome by the brute force of manhood neutrality.